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| Photo ID # | K09.21.14_019_BRI_GRN_0068D_1 |
| Car #: | #19 |
| Driver (s) : | Kenny Brightbill |
| Location: | Grandview |
| Date: | 1968? |
| Photographer: | Ray Masser |
| Photo provided by: | Harry Neiman |
| Comments: |
Comment: "A guy rode me high into the wall and when the car
hit the wall, the leaf springs weren't pinned in place so the whole rear
came free and I ended up coming down on it." That may not be an exact quote, but I had a unique opportunity to talk with Kenny prior to the start of this year's Freedom 76 event at Grandview (2014). Kenny told me that the car above didn't actually go over, but he remembers it standing on it's nose. I am thinking this is Kenny's first racecar, but I'm not 100% sure about that. He told me that the way he got started in racing is that he used to go to the races when he was young (with his sister I think?) and that as a farmer, he never considered himself having any special knowledge other than that out of necessity, you learn how to fix things and fix them in a way that they work and don't break. At some point, he had the opportunity to help out on the Dave Marberger's team, and admittedly, didn't know that much about racecars. He did what he could.... At some point he noticed that the car seemed to work really well when the track was wet, but once it dried out, it wasn't as strong. He mentioned that "observation" one night in the shop and the sponsor of the car (Wixon's Bakery) responded with, "What do you know you're just a kid..." (something like that... you can add a few adjectives if you want....) That motivated Kenny that maybe he could do it.... So he saw an ad in the back of AARN that somebody was selling a sedan near Wall Stadium for $3500 (possibly Woody Johnson?) and although he said he didn't have a pot to pee in, he took the ride there. When he got there, he saw an old coupe with a square cage and a seat in it - nothing else. He asked how much, and was told that it was going to the scrap heap... and if he wanted it, he could have it for $35. That became Kenny's first car. He took it back to PA, and was careful not to let his folks know about the car because he said that being from a Pennsylvania Dutch family, and having a racecar was not going to be something that they would approve of, so there was no way that he could keep the car on the farm where he lived. He was able to work out a deal at Marberger's shop where he mowed a section of the high grass directly behind the shop (on the other side of a window) so that he could keep the car there, and could feed the welding cables through the window from the main shop, to his makeshift area behind the garage. He remembers using black electrical tape to make the #19, and that he chose that # because nobody else had it, and he needed a number. He said that his brother had some kind of an old farm truck with a box on the back that wasn't being used, so he cut the roof off of the box, and made some kind of a ramp truck out of it... The only problem was that without the roof, the sides would flop from side to side a little when he went down the road. I don't know the rest of the story... about how Kenny got from those first days behind the wheel to having the career that he has, and continues to have, including winning the 2013 SpeedSTR Championship at Kutztown, followed up by a strong 3rd place finish in the final tally for 2014. I have no doubt that if Kenny had a crew that would help out with maintaining a modified throughout the week and who would be at the track each week that Kenny would still be a top driver on the modified circuit. I'm also glad that the sponsor from Wixon's choose to challenge Kenny on being just a kid, and not knowing what he was talking about. Seems that history would disagree! |